Electronic systems are driving innovation in daily life for many. An aspect of this is sometimes called ubiquitous computing or ambient intelligence. Electronic systems can perceive the environment by processing data from individual sensors or from entire sensor networks. Such electronic systems working with the internet can form Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) that can make daily life more safe, more secure, more energy efficient, or simply more convenient.
Electronic systems need to interface with the “real” world by reading heterogeneous information, data, or signals from sensors, for example to process that data in some way and to output the results to interact with the environment via actuators. An embedded system is an electronic processing system that is functionally integrated with a target system. The target system typically is a mechanical system (or has at least some mechanical components or aspects), such as, for example a washing machine, a printing machine, a vehicle, an airplane, a manufacturing robot, or a medical diagnostic system. One or more embedded systems become a component of target system, as further discussed in Wolf, W. H. (2001), “Computers as Components: Principles of Embedded Computing System Design”, Morgan Kaufman, which is herein incorporated by reference. The design of embedded systems, including, for example, hardware, software, firmware, computer architecture, real-time functionally, and so on, is well researched and documented, for example in Marwedel, P. (2010), “Embedded and cyber-physical systems in a nutshell” DAC.COM Knowledge Center Article. Connection of embedded systems to the Internet is discussed, for example, in “Cyber-Physical Systems” Lee, E. A. (2008); “Cyber Physical Systems: Design Challenges”; International Symposium on Object/Component/Service-Oriented Real-Time—ISORC 2008 which is herein incorporated by reference.
To be applicable and economically feasible, embedded systems must provide sufficient flexibility, for example, to adjust to changes in the data processing or to alterations in inputs and/or outputs. Therefore, it is highly desirable if an embedded system is built as a configurable system where changes can be applied over its lifecycle. Configurable Processing Devices (CPDs) are established semiconductor parts for implementing configurable systems. CPDs have a strong foothold in certain industries where configurability is key. For example, in networking, telecommunications, and military industries, embedded systems are used to implement entire data processing systems or at least significant portions thereof.
Field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are one type of CPD and are, for example, available from Xilinx Corporation, Altera Corporation, Lattice Semiconductors and other sources.